Quote:
Originally Posted by Chief Hedgehog
Option 1
For those opting for a more 'equal footing' for all teams I would suggest this:
[snip]
5. Your first regional/district is your Championship Qualifier. Bar None.
Option 2
For those opting for no bag and tag:
[snip]
3. Can qualify at any number of regionals, no need for wildcards.
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I REALLY want to pick on these two items right here.
For Option 1, you don't go far enough. No way, no how. If you want an equal footing, you need no more than one or two consecutive weeks of competition. (More than that and teams have time to plan strategy if not new parts that they might not have on their robot and realize they need.) You also need zero raw materials allowed into the event for repairs (they might be used for upgrades that were previously planned out on a practice robot). And those competitions come within a week of the bag day so that teams don't have time to get a practice robot running and get drive time. I'm not going to suggest a maximum budget, as suggested in another thread.
I will also say that FLL does it that way at their lower competition levels--first event of a given level is the one that counts for the next level up, which is the one that may feed the World Festival if you go in the right year. Guess what's just a little bit frustrating? (OTOH, as I recall, there's another level farther down that has no bearing on whether or not you qualify to go higher.)
Just to nitpick Option 2, I don't think you quite understand the wildcard system. Any given team can currently qualify at any number of events (provided they attend and compete there, and provided that they aren't in MI or MAR which have their own version). The wildcard system provides for filling slots left by teams that qualify again by a particular method at later events. One team can't fill more than one slot.
My other objections to Option 2 have already been expressed, both by myself and by others.
I actually think that the strict deadline is the way to go; however, I also see the proposed option as being limiting to Inspiration--and no sports model ends the season at one event. So...
Option #3:
-Hard bag deadline, 6 weeks+3 days (the way it is now). If the robot is not in the bag, the team is given a penalty ranging from loss of out-of-bag time to being disqualified from events. Discovery of such a fact after events are over results in carryover of the penalty to the next year.
-Out-of-bag time: 10 hours during the week before the event, including Saturdays. No more than 2x out of the bag, which must be sealed until the event after 10 hours or the second time the robot goes back in.
-Half-day of practice at regionals, mainly to check field connection, followed immediately by qual matches.
-Bag up robot after event if not done with season.
-Unlimited raw materials, batteries, bumpers, control system; 15 lb of spare and upgrade parts.
I think this is the best balance of inspiration and deadline and opportunity to qualify to advance.